www.sacw.net  - 22 May 2007 > In Defence of Intellectual and Artistic Freedom in (or on) South Asia:

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Delhi Petition condemns assault on freedom of expression
400 signatures at artists protest meeting on, 14th May 2007

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Sahmat
8, Vithal Bhai Patel House, Rafi Marg, New Delhi-110001/ Tel-23711276/23351424
 
We, the undersigned, wish to voice our strong protest and condemnation of the continuing assault on academic and other forms of freedom of expression by members of the Sangh Parivar. In recent years, senior artists such as M.F. Husain have been targets of both violence and innumerable, scurrilous lawsuits whose intent is to browbeat and intimidate freedom of expression within the Sovereign Republic of India. Citizens' right to legal redress is being misused to harass citizens; court proceedings are being used to punitively target whomever the Hindu right deems convenient in order to obtain cheap attention for its nefarious goals.
 
The recent attack on a graduate student at the prestigious Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University, Baroda, is the latest instance of this bludgeoning of public rights of expression. This was done with full state collusion. On Thursday, May 10, 2007, Mr. Neeraj Jain a known BJP activist, along with a group of Vishwa Hindu Parishad members, entered the premises of the Fine Arts Faculty where students' artworks were on display as part of the process of annual student evaluation.  They used violence against Mr. Chandramohan, a Master's candidate, and the police arrested him. Mr. Chandramohan has been in jail since then. The charge levelled against him is that of hurting religious sentiments.
 
Students in the Department of Art History at the University then mounted a 'protest exhibition' that attempted to show historical and pre-modern masterpieces from the history of art which could, in today's charged atmosphere, be deemed 'offensive'. The intention of the show was to question misconceptions about 'art', 'tradition', 'obscenity' and 'transgression'. On May 11, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University marched into the Department accompanied by four Syndicate members and ordered Prof. Shivaji Panikkar, the acting Dean, to shut down the exhibition. When Prof. Panikkar refused, the pro-VC had the exhibition brought down, and sealed the archive of the Art History Department. Prof. Panikkar, a highly respected academic with internationally recognized credentials, has since been suspended from his position and there is a demand to name him as co-accused in the case along with Mr. Chandramohan.
 
These kinds of attack on academics and artists not only represent the erosion of democratic freedoms, essential to the establishment of a vigorous and open society, but also destroy the very basis on which universities are founded. Let us make no mistake, the attack here is not merely on a particular artwork or form of expression, but on the very spirit of open-minded inquiry that is at the heart of the university's functioning. It is clear that since the rise of the Hindu right in the last decade and a half, India is descending into a dark prison for the imagination. And that, in states where the Hindu right or its allies are in power, state and police officials openly collude with their lumpen party mobs.
 
We, artists and art-related professionals, members of university faculties and administrations, and Indian citizens foremost, find this loutish behaviour intolerable. From these “narrow domestic walls”, these “dreary desert sands of dead habit”, as Tagore put it, may the people of India awake.
 
We appeal to all secular parties/organizations and individuals to raise their voice against the misuse of the police, judicial system and the state machinery to muzzle freedom of expression through coercion and intimidation.

Signatures at protest meeting at Rabindra Bhawan Lawn, May 14th, New Delhi

Zoya Hasan Mushirul Hasan Aizaj Ahmad Vivan Sundaram Ram Rahman Subodh Gupta S Islam Anjolie Ela Menon Apoorvanand Om Thanvi Nilima Nandita Rao Mita Deshpande Takahiro Noguchi Alain Willaitie Parth Datta Javed Malick Achla Sawhney Tulika Mehra Shyam Menon A.R.Khan Salil Misra Razwan Qaiser Rohan D Souza Amar Farooqui Rana P. Behal Mukul Manglik Sabyasachi Bhattacharya D.N.Jha Kavita Singh Baba Shameer Merchant-09910387817 Ashok Nehru K.Bikram Singh Rashmi Vajpeyi Shyam Sunder-IPTA Sheeba Chhachhi Rashna Imhasly Parthiv Shah Arpana Caur Avneet Gandhi Illa Datta Preeti Varma Kriti Arora Kavita Nayar Anandamoy Bannerjee Bula Bhattacharya Raza Haider Paramjit Singh Gauri Gill Prerna Shrimali Tani Sandhu Bhargava Samit Das Rahul Ashim Purkayastha Anuradha Pathak Mandita Chatterjee Nilanjana Nande Kaushal Srivastava Rajesh K.Sharma B.Mandol L.N.Rana Mahendra S. Baoni M.S.Rao Mannika Chopra Richa Narain Prashant Urvi Jiten Gautam Shambhu Kumar Kewal Arora Rabi Ram B. Avinash Paliwal Dipesh Khushalani Geetha Nambiar Indu Chandrasekhar T.K.Hareendran Sibi Sebastian Avishek Sen Peter A.Nagy Amrieka Takhar Shetty Bahl Shivani Dogra Philip Reeves Aditi Chandra Jayati Ghosh Jahnavi Sen Isha Vallari Vivek Kishore Manohar Khushalani Ashish Ranjan Chandan Kumar Chaudhury Deva Nand Dihrakar Harinder M. G.Arunima JN Mukherjee Sarah Hashmi Malay Firoz Gopika Chowfla Sohael Chowfla Gautam Bhan Dadi Pudumjee Sanjay Roy Sarita Rani Priya esn Mario D Penha Shantanu Lodh Akhil Katyal Anuj Kumar Agarwal Md. Sahidur Rahaman Ganesh Kumar Asmita Singh Shehla Hashmi Swapnil Krishna Morari Purwa Bharadwaj Shukla Sawant Sheila Makhijani Arpita Singh Nandini Datta Laila Tayebji Nandita Das Ashok Vajpeyi Vinayak Bhattacharya Dolly Naramg Amrita Unnikrishnan Sushnta Mandal Iqbal Singh

Manjeet Sidhu Bhannu Bharati Prasanta Kalita Sathyabhama Rajnish Kaur Sitaram Yechury Sagri Chhabra Vanyavaidehib Ritu Dabas Shikha Sharma Aarti Sharma Izhar Alam Gunjan Singhal Manmeet Krishen Kant Shakeel Khan Rajinder Arora A.Dev Vishwa Mohan Jha Shami Ahmad Lalit Bhartiya Sudhir Shandra Anuradha Kapur Tripurari Sharma Pooja Sood Mohan Maharishi Mrinalini Mukherjee Dattatraya Apte Ajit Bhattacharjee Mira Sinha Bhattacharjee Vidya shivadas Shibani Sahni Madhu Trehan Vanya V.Bhargava Meena Menezes Geeta Patel Avijit Roy S. Bakshi Kalyani Duta Aamir Rizvi Priyanka Pandey Rakesh Thakore Anat Kumar Saidi Hassan Ashwani Kumar GUlam Sarwar Chetna Madhvi Abhijit Prasanjit Sourindra Badri Raina Alka Pande Mohan Muhalniya Anshu Pancholi Radhakrishnan S. Hamida Vadhava Vaghish K.Singh Haripriya Singh Hema Singh Roshan Kishore Sanjay Kak Ama Mehra Mahula Ghosh Tanmoya Samanta Sania Hashmi Vinay Verma Shvetang Bhardwaj Jawarimal Parakh Nagama Sabat Severini Mrtaza Danish Husain N.K.Sharma Randhir Singh Manoj K.Karlee Mukeshwar Vikas Singh Avadhesh Sanjay SharmaSameer Manini Chatterjee S.Kalidas Githa Hariharan Shubha Singh Jogendra Sharma Sanjiv Kumar Sohail Hashmi Shaktipada K.Ashok Rao Jharna Shubha Mudgal Roobina Karode Laila Khan Rajpal Manohar Khushalani Rajan Fuleri Satish Gupta Pankaj Singh Savita Singh Sanhita Gupta Bhaskar Chandavarkar Atul Matla O K.Yadav D.Raja Chitfina Prasun D Savita Kundra Manmeet Vinod Bhardwaj Sabeena Gadihoke Sabina Kidwai Shikha Jhingan Ranjani Mazumdar Damodran Panikkar Jatin Anand Sanjeev Jaiswal Brijraj Sharma Manoj Saikia Arshi Hasan Mohan Panikkar Satish Sabarwal Jayshree Malthi Akansha Rastogi Arjun Rajgopal Anuradha Chandra R.Agarwal Ajay Kumar Lokesh Kumar Vijit Raghu Rai Johny ML Ashish N.

Amit Singh Arbind Kumar Singh Rajesh Ram Sushmita Mohanty Deepak K.Ambuj Ranjan Mullik Banoj Mohanty Sebestian N. Himanshu B.Joshi Bipin K. Avtar Sahni Banwari Taneja Rahul Roy Randhir Vipin Praven Kumar Gunjan Madhu Prasad Madan Gopal Singh Anuradha Roy C.P.Chandrasekhar Vandana Vibha Galhotra K.B.Vaid K.S. Radhakrishnana Nutan Aditya Menon Sneha Vinod Kumar Savita Kundra Meeta Mishra Sailha Chenhat Geeta Kapur Shibani Azam Mark Paul Raghvendra Rao B.Mandal S.G. Supriya Shukla Anusha Lall Tanmaya Santosh Abhay Agarwal Augustine Rongpi Prakash Upadhyaya Ranjita Bhattacharya Gagandeep Sanitha B. Savita Malawat Hira Singh Pratik Kanjilal Abhishek Gupta Ashu Naveen Kaushik K.M.Madhusudhanan Mala Marwah Archana Shastri Kavita Nayar Gayatri Sinha Lovly Singh Nabodita Sarkar Amitabh Kumar Manjari Sihare Surbhi Bahl A.Sandhu Ashok Dogra K.K.Radhey Veenu Mohani Gulranjani Usha Krishna Rajni Palriwal Nasreen Fezalbhoy Sanjay kumar Mon JH Shukla Binod Kumar Rupika Chawla Kausar Wizarat Anita Khemka Daulat Vaid Rajesh Dailang Vibha Chauhan Kath Weston Geeta Patel Joya John Rashna Imhasly Gandhi Nuzhat Kazmi Aban Raza Antara Dev Sen Brinda Kumar Akshya Tankha Kamala Menon Laxmi Narayan Tripathi Kausar Wizarat Anita Khemka Daulat Vaid Rajesh Tailang Alok Gagan Vij Pratul Desh Nishant Kashmir Sakshi Gupta Aastha Chauhan Rohini Devasher Ram Bali Chauhan Shantanu Mitra Gautam Kalra Soumitra Kristine Michael Ishad Alam Moggallan Bhatia Aruna Vasudev Geeti Sen Devendra Shukla Amita Rana Dhananjay C. Shamsher Umesh Sudhakar Sudheer Nath